[Johnny Brown]

Remember reading a while back about arctic explorers etc having file transfer software which works with bad connections, eg satphones with constant timeouts, dropped connections etc.
Having given up on getting my broadband to work properly I figure if i get something like this it'll still be useful. Following last weekends mammoth dial-up download session of a 45mb file I'm pretty keen, uploading photos to clients ftp sites would be nice too. Annoyingly I can browse through ftp sites on broadband but not upload.
Any ideas? Have tried messing with settings in filezilla but it still aborts at the first timeout.

[Monolith]

Seriously, don't give up on sorting your Broadband. If it is on the part of your ISP, then give them all hell. I've had my line speed doubled from giving them shit for their own incompetency. Looking at mid 90s software surely can't be the way JB!

What's the issue with your Broadband (or lack of)?

[Johnny Brown]

I don't know, I had some experts look at it and they're mysytified too. Best guess is the phone line isn't up to it. it can't maintain a connection. Surfing the web, 95% of sites never get past 'waiting for reply'. I can usually download emails but the bigger the attachments the more goes it takes, for a 5mb file 20 attempts is usual. Bizarrely the met office website functions perfectly.

Do you know of any suitable software? Can't seem to come up with a term to google that finds any.

[Monolith]

Maybe if you can find a mid 90s copy of CuteFTP or the like, your line will deal with it a bit better. As to whether an old and simple piece of software will be able to deal with the problem any more so than a contemporary one, I don't know.

BenF was telling me that Steve Bromley (I think he said his name was) works at something like an Arctic research station. Maybe he could put you in touch to find out what exactly this software is.

As a more immediate and better option, I'd get a line test and see what the engineers make of the results. Threats to leave your ISP and/or phone provider usually result in a better standard of service (sadly).

If I can think of any of the other applications I used to use for file transfer in the mid 90s, I'll let you know.

[Monolith]

JB, have a browse through the list below and maybe see what works best for you. I've been looking through various sources but not found what you are specifically looking for. A lot of the results I came across were things like links to military websites and the network infrastructures that they have developed. Again, nothing publicly available.

Applications list.

Have you hassled your ISP yet?

[Johnny Brown]

Cheers word.

I think the issue is with the line rather than the isp, guess I need to hassle BT too.

[Monolith]

Aye, go and psyche yourself up before complaining to BT. Pretty sure there was an entire thread devoted to dealing with phone providers last year.

Best of luck.